(Washington) The United States on Thursday called for the immediate release of Yemeni employees at its embassy in Sana’a held by Iran-backed Houthi rebels, a State Department spokesperson said Thursday.
The majority of local employees of the US embassy in the Yemeni capital have been released, a spokesperson for US diplomacy said in a statement.
But “Yemeni employees of our embassy remain detained without explanation and we call for their immediate release,” he added, without specifying the number of employees detained or their functions.
The spokesman said Houthi rebels had broken into the grounds of the embassy, which had been closed since 2015, when the United States transferred its diplomatic staff to Riyadh due to the civil war in Yemen.
“We call on the Houthis to leave the premises immediately and to return all the American possessions seized,” he said. “The US government will continue its diplomatic efforts to secure the release of our personnel and the evacuation of our embassy.”
Fighting between pro-government troops, backed by a Saudi-led military coalition, and Houthi rebels close to Iran has intensified in recent weeks around the strategic town of Marib, the last loyalist stronghold in the north. from Yemen.
Since the outbreak of war in 2014, the Houthis have gradually taken control of a large part of northern Yemen, including the capital.
In seven years, Yemen has plunged into one of the world’s worst humanitarian tragedies, according to the UN, with more than two-thirds of the population dependent on international aid. Tens of thousands of people, most of them civilians, have been killed and millions displaced according to international organizations.